1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid supply apparatus in which a liquid container is installable to an installing section via an opening and an urging member urges the liquid container toward the opening when the liquid container is installed in the installing section, and an image recording apparatus in which the liquid supply apparatus is provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image recording apparatus has been hitherto known, in which an image is recorded on a recording sheet of paper by using an ink or inks. The image recording apparatus is provided with a ink jet recording head, and ink droplets are selectively jetted from nozzles of the recording head toward the recording sheet of paper. The ink droplets are landed on the recording sheet of paper, and thus the desired image is recorded on the recording sheet of paper. A liquid container, which stores ink to be supplied to the recording head, is provided for the image recording apparatus. One example of the liquid container is a liquid cartridge, which is configured to be inserted into and removed from a installing section provided in the image recording apparatus. A liquid cartridge storing ink is also referred to as an “ink cartridge”.
When the ink cartridge runs out of ink, the ink cartridge is removed from the installing section of the image recording apparatus, and then a new ink cartridge, which stores ink, is installed into the installing section. The installing section has a lock structure configured to lock, hold, or retain the ink cartridge in a specific position in the installing section. The installing section also has an urging member configured to urge the ink cartridge in a direction in which the ink cartridge is removed from the installing section when the ink cartridge is locked, held, or retained by the lock structure. When the ink cartridge is intended to be removed from the installing section, the ink cartridge is released from the locked state, and the ink cartridge is moved toward the outside of the installing section with a force applied by the urging member. Accordingly, a user can readily remove the ink cartridge from the installing section.
If the ink cartridge is moved with a great force, the ink cartridge may jump out of the installing section. If the ink cartridge jumps out of the installing section, the ink cartridge may fall down and contact a surface, and the impact of contacting the surface may cause the ink stored in the ink cartridge to splash out. Further, the ink cartridge may be broken when the ink cartridge contacts the surface.
A known installing section, such as a installing section described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-288866, has a structure for preventing the ink cartridge from jumping out of the mounting portion. More specifically, the installing section is provided with an elastically deformable hook pawl. The hook pawl is configured to engage an edge of a engaging recess formed in an ink cartridge at a predetermined timing when the ink cartridge moves toward the outside of the mounting portion. With this engagement, the ink cartridge is prevented from jumping out of the installing section.
However, when replacement of the ink cartridge is repeatedly and the hook pawl is repeatedly elastically deformed many times, the hook pawl may be fatigued and may become unable to elastically return to its original position or the deformation amount thereof may be reduced due to the fatigue, or the hook pawl may even be fractured off In such cases, the function of the hook pawl, i.e., the prevention of the ink cartridge from jumping out of the installing section, is no longer effective. In order to restore the function, it is necessary to replace the installing section having the hook pawl.